''Caladenia integra'', commonly known as the smooth-lipped spider orchid, is a species of plant in the orchid

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It can be distinguished by its distinctive smooth-edged labellum and its upswept lateral

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

Description

''Caladenia integra'' is a terrestrial,

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

with an underground tuber and a single hairy leaf, long and about wide. One or two flowers are produced on the end of a flowering stem tall. The flowers are across and long with green with maroon markings. The dorsal

is erect, long and wide. The lateral sepals are parallel and close together below the flower and are long, wide. They point downwards at their base but then curve upwards in front of the labellum. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are slightly shorter and narrower than the sepals and point downwards at an oblique angle. The labellum is loosely hinged to the column, long, wide, green to yellowish with a dark purple tip. Unlike other spider orchids, the edge of the labellum lacks teeth and has purplish calli crowded along its centre line. Flowering occurs from late September to November.

Taxonomy and naming

''Caladenia integra'' was first described by

Edith Coleman Edith Coleman (1874–1951) was an Australian natural history, naturalist and nature writer who made important observations on pollination syndromes in Australian plant species. Early life Coleman was born Edith Harms on 29 July 1874 in Woking, ...

in 1932 in ''The Victorian Naturalist'', from a specimen collected near Tunney. In a review of the genus ''Caladenia'' in 2001, David Jones and Mark Clements proposed a name change to ''Arachnorchis integra'' but the change has not been widely adopted. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''integra'') is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word meaning "whole", "entire" or "complete".

Distribution and habitat

The smooth-lipped orchid occurs in isolated populations between

Clackline Clackline is a locality in the Wheatbelt (Western Australia), Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, about east-north-east of Perth, Western Australia, Perth. History John Forrest, later Premier of Western Australia, recorded the name Clacklin ...

and

Tenterden Tenterden is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother. It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation. Its riverside today is not ...

with a disjunct population near Kalbarri in the Avon Wheatbelt,

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

, Geraldton Sandplains,

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

and Mallee

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

. It mainly grows under

sheoak The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific ...

trees on

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

outcrops.

Conservation

''Caladenia integra'' is classified as " Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

, meaning that is rare or near threatened.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3178551 integra Orchids of Western Australia Endemic orchids of Australia Plants described in 1933 Endemic flora of Western Australia